Dear Parents and Carers

Well it has been quite a term. It is hard to imagine 10 weeks ago we would be moving to remote learning. This week I was reminded of an email from the beginning of the year from a parent concerned about the possible return of students from China in light of the Coronavirus. Little did I know then that our whole world would be impacted in such a significant way and that our whole way of operating would be changed so dramatically by this same virus.

As we move towards Easter, it is strange to not be able to attend Mass. I have always found Mass a time to reflect on my life and my relationship with God. An hour to spend in contemplation and meditation that the routine and ritual the Mass provides. As I repeat the same prayers each week, stand and kneel in unison with my fellow parishioners and reflect during the silence, my whole self is brought into a state of calm knowing that God is with me. While I feel blessed to have access to the technology which allows me to participate in an online Mass, I still miss seeing those familiar faces and the warm greetings I receive each Sunday morning.

Richard Rohr in his book Falling Upwards writes of ‘necessary suffering’. That through this process of loss and what he calls ‘necessary suffering’, we begin to become more human. St Augustine said “To make a sacrifice is to surrender something out of love, something that is ours and is painful to give away, and let the pain of that surender stretch our hearts in such a way that we are now more open to communication with God and others.” Our Lenten sacrifice is part of this, but so to is the current sacrifice we are all making to slow this virus. Teachers miss their students, children miss their teachers and their friends. We all miss the routine that was our lives and struggle to adjust to a new way of being.

As we approach Easter we begin to think about Jesus’ sacrifice, His death and Resurrection. St Thomas Aquinas wrote of Jesus suffering and sacrifice so that we all may be redeemed in Summa Theologiae. When Jesus was crucified on the cross He felt pain just as we feel pain and His friends felt a deep sense of loss and abandonment, just as some of those isolated may be feeling right now. Jesus’ sacrifice was necessary suffering. It is through this, through Jesus’ great act of love where He gave over everything, including His very life as a sacrifice for us that we can come to know Christ and begin to know our own humanness.

I wish all of you a Holy Easter, a time to be with your children. Perhaps now, in all this quietness we can cherish those closest to us and be grateful.

God’s Blessings